Handled floor and carpet push brush cleaners have been devised in the past. Two such brush cleaners are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,311,354 and 6,321,405. Another known push brush cleaner of the general type disclosed in these patents consists of a wheel mounted spindle or dowel having two arrays of bristles, each consisting of several longitudinally extending rows. The bristles of one array have a larger diameter than the bristles in the other array. In use, the push broom is operatively positioned so that one of the two arrays is in sweeping contact with the floor or carpet. When desired, the push brush can be turned over to place the other bristle array in contact with the floor or carpet. With the selected array in operative position, the push brush is pushed and pulled across the surface to dislodge debris from the carpet or tile grouting, etc. The array of large diameter bristles penetrate deep into the carpet fibers, while the smaller diameter bristle array is useful on hard surfaces and carpets with shallow pile. When applying a cleaning agent, such a dry powder, to a carpet surface, the array of smaller diameter fibers can be used to smooth the agent over the carpet, while the array of larger diameter fibers can be used to push the agent deep into the carpet pile.
Known push brush cleaners of the type described have a disadvantage of requiring considerable effort to push the broom across the carpet. As a result, these push brooms have not been widely accepted in the market place.
Another disadvantage of the known floor and carpet push brooms is that the length of the bristle extension beyond the wheel periphery is limited. This limitation makes it impossible to maximize the cleaning ability of the broom on tile and the like. The amount of bristle extension needed for the best cleaning efficiency increases the force required to push the broom across the carpet to a level that makes the broom nearly impossible to use.